I was hired last year by a garden owner – Sharon – to prune her fruit trees. Sharon owns a small farm near Nanaimo airport. She had purchased the property the previous year and had inherited two fruit trees – one apple and one cherry tree. The trees had not been trimmed for several years and were living in the shadow of a massive Douglas fir. The trees as you will see were covered in moss and very unhealthy. I told her I was not sure if the apple tree would recover…it was a 50/50 chance. She really wanted to try and save it as it had produced wonderful apples the previous season.

I told her it would be a three year plan if the tree survived. I did not want to over prune and kill the tree. The rule for any pruning job is to never take more then 1/3 off as it can stress the tree. I was very happy to hear the apple tree had not only survived but thrived and she had a bumper crop of apples. I know I cannot take all of the credit as everyone had a bumper crop last year. Mother nature always has a way to communicate a hard winter coming with the amount of fruit trees bare. A harsh winter coming means you will have alot of fruit. So here is year one and year two pictures. It was very late in the season last year when she called me to prune and I was concerned about damaging the trees but I knew if they were to be saved and healthy then pruning was a must. The cherry was already in blossom but I went ahead anyway. I sprayed the trees with “Safer’s De-Moss” and used a soft brush to rid the trees of most of the moss. We trimmed some of the overhanging branches off the fir tree to increase airflow and minimize the shade as much as possible to inhibit new moss growth. The product is environmentally safe, is a potassium based soap and is safe around people and pets.

I trimmed all of the dead branches off of the trees, trimmed all suckers off and took some branches out of the middle to increase air flow and sunlight reaching the centre of the trees.

Year 1

Year Two

This year I was so very happy to see all of the new growth on both the apple and the cherry tree. Incredibly, there is no moss growing on any of the new growth and most of moss is gone from the older limbs. So this year, I trimmed less off, taking all of the suckers and topping the cherry tree to bring it down lower. Sharon cannot reach the top to pick the fruit. We also took some larger limbs off of the fir to continue to open up the fruit trees to sunshine. It is obvious the trees are very happy now. Here are year two pictures. Stay tuned for year three next year. Thank you Sharon for giving me this opportunity!